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Sonoma Raceway
Sonoma Raceway is a road course located in Sonoma, California. It was originally established as Sears Point International Raceway (no relation whatsoever to Sears, Roebuck, and company; it was founded on Sears Point Ranch founded by nineteenth century settler Franklin Sears). For awhile, it was known as Infineon Raceway, after corporate sponsor Infineon Technologies. Sonoma Raceway has hosted a wide variety of racing series. It has hosted the Trans Am Series (mostly in the eighties and beyond, although the course was on the 1969 schedule), the Can Am Series (seventies to eighties revival series only), the IMSA GT Championship, Grand Am, the American Le Mans Series, the SCCA World Challenge, NASCAR, AMA Superbike, NHRA Drag Racing, IndyCar Series racing (originally in 1970, and added to the schedule much later), and various minor professional and amateur events. Sonoma also hosted the inaugural event of the Escort Endurance Championship in 1986, which would later become the SCCA World Challenge in 1990. Sonoma hosted the inaugural event of the new SCCA World Challenge that year as well. When the series was an endurance championship, the event lasted six hours. Configurations The course has four different configurations depending on the series. Full Circuit The full circuit is about two and a half miles long. Notable parts include the counter-intuitive turn two, which banks to the driver's right when it would be ideal to bank to the driver's left; the carousel, similar to the one at Road America except that it is downhil instead of being entirely flat; and the front hairpin, similar to that used at Formula One course Circuit de Monaco. This configuration is currently seldom used. The only major event which utilizes the full course is the Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival, a racing showcase of classic racecars. In 1970 at Sears Point, Gus Hutchison became the first driver using a Ford-powered vehicle to win a Formula 5000 race. Category:Sports Car Club of America Category:Formula 5000 Indy Circuit Due to the fast speeds of the Indy Cars, changes had to be made to the circuit. When coming out of the carousel, the keyhole was changed to use instead the entire dragstrip and the outer loop instead of the inner loop. This changed the back hairpin into one comparable to that at Circuit de Magny-Cours, site of the Formula One French Grand Prix. As the high-speed esses have no runoff at the end, a Circuit Spa-Francorchamps style bus stop chicane was installed to slow the cars down before the end of the esses. The chicane also has a runoff area. The front hairpin, having no runoff due to the long pit entrance going around it, was omitted entirely. Recently, however, there have been some modifications to the configuration. The inner loop is now used at the back hairpin. The exit of the chicane was widened to allow for more room. The cars now use some of the front hairpin, albeit still allowing for some runoff. This configuration is about 2.2 miles long. Since the merger with the Champ Car World Series in 2008, Sonoma has been one of the few road courses on the Indy schedule. The series prefers a mixture of oval and street circuits. The Pirelli Word Challenge in recent years has used this configuration due to their being a support event for the Indy race. (The course cannot be easily reconfigured due to the placement of concrete walls in various parts of the track depending on the configuration.) NASCAR Circuit Sonoma was added to the NASCAR schedule after Riverside International Raceway closed in 1989. To accommodate for the poorer handling of the NASCAR sedans, a new two-mile configuration was created in 1998 whereby the carousel is omitted entirely, with the sedans instead using a back straight known as The Chute leading over to the outer loop at the back hairpin. The sedans still use the esses and the full front hairpin due to the chicane and hairpin cutoff used in the Indy course being too tight for the NASCAR sedans to handle. This and Watkins Glen International are the only road courses on the NASCAR schedule, although Road America and Road Atlanta are used by various support series. Sonoma and Watkins Glen have been the only road courses on the schedule for the main series since 1989. World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship recently chose Sonoma as its American host, the first US event in series history. It used a modified version of the full circuit, using the back hairpin and the bus stop that the IndyCar Series uses. The event was shortlived. Video Gaming The first video game to feature Sonoma Raceway was the computer game NASCAR Racing, released in 1994. The circuit was featured in racing simulator Gran Turismo 4, the first time in series history. It was later featured in the fourth installment of Gran Turismo's rival series Forza Motorsport. In GT4, the circut is lush and grassy. Forza 4 depicts the series more realistically, with all the grass dried up and brown. This is because California is very dry during racing season. The circuit is only lush during the offseason. A main reason for the track's inclusion in Forza 4 was due to an attempt to include stock car racing and drag racing, both of which have been held at Sonoma. Despite the inclusion of Indy Cars in Forza 5, Sonoma was not carried over rom Forza 4. This is likely due to all the reconfigurations the track went through between the two games. The circuit would have to be completely redone. The circuit returned in Forza 6 with only the original Forza 4 configurations. Interestingly, the circuit was changed to appear more plush and green. Trivia The seating area at turn two is named the Earnhardt Terrace, after late NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, Sr. Category:Racetracks Category:IndyCar Series Category:NASCAR Category:Trans Am Series Category:IMSA Category:Can Am Category:Sports Car Club of America Category:NHRA